In the summer of 1964, hundreds of student volunteers came down from the North and Midwest into Mississippi to build freedom schools and register Negro voters. They wanted to insure that every Mississippian had civil rights; they hoped to loosen the iron grip of racism fostered by an entrenched and growing Ku Klux Klan. The federal government was reluctant to interfere in States' business and, when these workers went south, they had only their zeal and non-violent resistance to protect them. One Sunday in Mississippi depicts the moment when three workers, one black, two white, disappeared in the field in Neshoba County, Mississippi. This is their story.

This one act play explores facts and fictions of the Civil Rights Movement; reflects the political and emotional timbre of the time; and probes the nature of racism. Based on interviews with surviving relatives and friends of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, One Sunday in Mississippi features the differing points of view of the three slain workers as they recall the events of Sunday, June 21, 1964, their last day on earth.

Acknowledgements

Cover Art

Introduction

Production History

Notes on Performance of the Play

Cast of Characters

ACT ONE

Bibliography

Authors' Biographies

My brother, Andrew Goodman, was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on his first day as a Freedom Summer Volunteer in Mississippi, June 21, 1964. He had come to Mississippi to work with his brother civil rights workers, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, to register African Americans to vote. Linda Bannister and James E. Hurd, Jr.'s powerful and beautiful play, One Sunday in Mississippi, tells the Chaney/Goodman/Schwerner story with authentic detail and gripping prose. The play gives voice to those three young men and to thousands more, often among the youth, who lost their lives in the fight for freedom. One Sunday in Mississippi tells a story that belongs to all Americans. These men lived for every American voice and vote to count, a goal The Andrew Goodman Foundation is working toward through its Vote Everywhere program at 43 colleges in 19 states around the country.

David Goodman, President of The Andrew Goodman Foundation

One Sunday in Mississippi stands as stark evidence that the past isn't always "past," it's all too often jagged, unfinished business. Trenchant, reportorial and at turns richly poetic, Linda Bannister and James E. Hurd, Jr's play questions what defines humanity and what complicates it. Read in the contemporary context of high-profile killings of black men by police, regressive racial discourse and a steady chipping-away of hard-won Civil Rights-era legislation, One Sunday in Mississippi, and the tragic saga of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner doesn't fit neatly on a shelf of history; our 21st Century news cycle daily confirms this. Bannister and Hurd's deeply affecting play casts a hard light: not on an America that's "gotten worse," but one that has never fully confronted its collective nightmare of racism nor its attendant untended wounds.

Lynell George, Journalist and author of No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels

One Sunday in Mississippi is a powerful new play by Bannister and Hurd that takes us back to 1964 when Klansmen brutally murdered 3 civil rights workers for the "crime" of registering black voters. Written in a unique and creative style that incorporates mixed media and a small cast performing all the characters, the play immerses us into the idealism of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and the mindset of bigotry and hate that allowed the killers to get away with murder for more than 40 years. Although rooted in the past, this play could not be more timely or relevant in 2017 as the issue of race still rears its ugly head. One Sunday in Mississippi is a must-read, must-see play, a poignant reminder that the "price of freedom" in America was (and is) not free.

Micki Dickoff, Writer, director, and producer of Neshoba: The Price of Freedom

Linda Bannister, professor of English at Loyola Marymount University, has a Ph. D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature from the University of Southern California. She was the inaugural holder of The Daum Professorship, an endowed chair at LMU honoring a senior professor whose scholarship, creative work, teaching, and service are exemplary. Bannister co-wrote (with James E. Hurd, Jr.) and produced the world premiere run of their play Turpentine Jake at the Del Rey Theatre on the LMU campus in Los Angeles, which was nominated for two 2009 NAACP Theatre Awards, winning one. Turpentine Jake was also a 2015 Humanitas Prize in Drama Finalist and a publication of the Marymount Institute Press. Bannister and Hurd have also co-authored an award-winning short film based on Turpentine Jake, "Poet of the Swingin' Blade," which was invited to nine film festivals and won Best Message Film at the San Diego Film Festival 2007 and Best Experimental Film at The Fort Omaha Film Festival 2009. Dr. Bannister is also a Board Member of The CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice, and a past Board Member of the World Stage in Los Angeles.

James E. Hurd, Jr. was a writer, actor, and director, co-authoring civil rights-themed dramas with Linda Bannister, including One Sunday in Mississippi and Turpentine Jake, both of which were invited to the National Black Theatre Festival. Turpentine Jake was a 2015 Humanitas Prize in Drama Finalist and a publication of TSEHAI Publishers. The world premiere of Turpentine Jake, which Hurd co-directed, was at The Del Rey Theater on the LMU Campus, and was nominated for two NAACP Theater awards, winning one for best actor in a local production. Hurd and Bannister co-founded The Kohl Players in Los Angeles www.kohlplayers.com. Hurd appeared on many Los Angeles stages, including The Wilshire Ebell, The Met, The Actor's Gang, The Stella Adler, and The Long Beach Playhouse. He also starred in over 50 features and short films, many of which went to film festivals around the country. After a long battle with cancer, James Hurd passed away in 2014, with his devoted partner Linda Bannister at his side.